The Criminal Liability of Lisa Nowak

The Criminal Liability of Lisa Nowak

By Philip Averbuck

Spec./Capt. Lisa Nowak faces serious legal jeopardy in Florida.
After reading the arrest/charging affidavits, I have to wonder
at some of the commentary out there. Jeffrey Fieger appeared on
Good Morning America Friday and told the audience that, "at
most, she might be guilty of an assault and battery." Here in
Florida, those charges are both misdemeanors, punishable by a
maximum of 14 months in the county jail (12 for the battery, 2
for the assault.)

Counselor Fieger was grossly mistaken.

Based on the contents of the bag that was recovered from the
trash can (after a policeman saw Capt. Nowak dump it in there),
the [utterly credible] victim's statement, Capt. Nowak's
post-Miranda statement, and the statutes here in Florida, these
are the charges she could be convicted of in a heartbeat, and
their concomitant maximum prison penalties in Florida:

Florida Statutes 787.02 False imprisonment (5 years)
Florida Statutes 790.07 Persons engaged in criminal
offense, having weapons (5 years)
Florida Statutes 812.133 Carjacking, armed (Life)
Florida Statutes 787.01 Kidnapping, armed (Life)
Florida Statutes 810.02 Burglary, with assault/battery,
armed (Life)

Mr. Fieger put a lot of emphasis on Capt. Nowak's claim that she
had only brought the weapons (steel mallet, knife, real-looking
BB pistol) in order to "scare" her victim so she'd talk to her.
Uhhhhhh, this is exactly what constitutes a false imprisonment
or kidnapping, the unlawful confinement of a victim (by
well-founded fear, in this case--assuming Capt. Nowak never
would have actually used the tubing she had bought to tie up her
victim).

Mr. Fieger had a valid point, in that the attempted first degree
murder charge that Capt. Nowak is facing is probably excessive.
But so what? This parade of potential life felonies doesn't
need any enhancement..."Hey, Lisa, good news! The judge threw
out the attempted murder charge! Now we're only sunk on 2 or 3
other life felonies!"

Did I mention that we don't have parole here in Florida?

Apart from her extraordinary life story, Capt. Nowak has
horrific equities surrounding her case: long-term
premeditation; stunningly precise planning and execution of her
plan; focus on a completely innocent victim; carrying out her
plan all the way, even to the point of pepper-spraying the
victim when she unwisely rolled her car window down speak to the
"tearful" Capt. Nowak; making an enormous physical effort to
complete the plan; a written list of the items needed to
complete the plan (too bad she didn't add one last item to the
list: "When other items are purchased, BURN THIS LIST!"); and
a great effort to conceal her identity.

I've made it a point to ask many Florida prosecutors one
question over the years: "What portion of our cases involve (1)
a defendant who is genuinely guilty, (2) doing/attempting to do
something genuinely harmful, (3) to someone who is genuinely
innocent?" The answer is always, "Oh, about 20-25%."
Unfortunately, Capt. Nowak falls into this category...and the
evidence against her is overwhelming.

Fortunately for her, her life story may just pull her future out
of the fire. I predict that she will eventually plead guilty to
the 2 lesser felonies (it will keep her scoresheet points down),
or perhaps a stipulated reduced charge of aggravated battery
(15-year max), with her sentence to be begun in a lockdown
mental facility. Then a lengthy probation--4-8 years.

Her life will be ruined in the short term, but unlike so many of
my defendants, she she will have a chance to rebuild it outside
of the Florida State Prison system.

Philip Averbuck is a criminal defense attorney who practices in
Polk County, Florida.
Page Printed from:
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at February 10, 2007 - 03:32:44 PM EST

"Wok" wrote in message
...
The Criminal Liability of Lisa Nowak




Fortunately for her, her life story may just pull her future out
of the fire. I predict that she will eventually plead guilty to
the 2 lesser felonies (it will keep her scoresheet points down),
or perhaps a stipulated reduced charge of aggravated battery
(15-year max), with her sentence to be begun in a lockdown
mental facility. Then a lengthy probation--4-8 years.

I'm not so sure it'll go that well for her.
The premeditation will make any incompetence defense
difficult, so I don't see a psychiatric prison in here future.

In Florida there's little sympathy for first time offenses for
violent crimes. And the high profile nature of the case will
only cause the prosecutors to want a long and very public
trial. With so much evidence the prosecution doesn't
need to cut any deals, she'll have to go to trial
and hope for a sympathetic jury.

I doubt she'll get less than ten to fifteen hard time for what
she did, if not life. It's what she deserves and what other
people routinely get for attempted murder. If the story
we're told so far is true, it looks pretty obvious she was
planning kidnapping, murder and disposing of the
body.




Her life will be ruined in the short term, but unlike so many of
my defendants, she she will have a chance to rebuild it outside
of the Florida State Prison system.

Philip Averbuck is a criminal defense attorney who practices in
Polk County, Florida.
Page Printed from:
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/...y_of_lisa.html
at February 10, 2007 - 03:32:44 PM EST

Looks like her astronaut career is history...

On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:17:44 GMT, robert casey wrote:

Looks like her astronaut career is history...


And how did you arrive at that conclusion??

Burnham Treezdown wrote:

On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:17:44 GMT, robert casey wrote:


Looks like her astronaut career is history...



And how did you arrive at that conclusion??


Oh, just a scientific wild ass guess (SWAG)...

In article ,
Burnham Treezdown wrote:
Looks like her astronaut career is history...

And how did you arrive at that conclusion??

It happened the moment she appeared on the front page as a psycho killer
astronaut. Embarrassing NASA in public has always been a career killer
for astronauts.
--
spsystems.net is temporarily off the air; | Henry Spencer
mail to henry at zoo.utoronto.ca instead. |

Henry Spencer wrote:
In article ,
Burnham Treezdown wrote:
Looks like her astronaut career is history...
And how did you arrive at that conclusion??

It happened the moment she appeared on the front page as a psycho killer
astronaut. Embarrassing NASA in public has always been a career killer
for astronauts.

But there's a silver lining in this sad episode: Nobody was seriously
hurt, yet it really illuminated the whole issue of space psychology,
which hasn't been given the attention it deserves, given that
long-duration crewed space missions like lunar bases and Mars landings
are under serious consideration.

Unlike the Challenger and Columbia tragedies, in which flaws were
identified at the cost of human lives, this time NASA got a very big and
very public wake-up call on a potential future problem without having to
pay a big penalty for it in human lives.

It's too politically incorrect for NASA to admit it, but space
psychology is made more difficult by having mixed-gender crews from a
mixed-gender astronaut corps pool. It can lead to all the problems
we've seen here on earth with "workplace romances," amplified by the
isolation and autonomy and boredom on a long-duration deep space flight.


--
Steven D. Litvintchouk
Email:
Remove the NOSPAM before replying to me.

Oh I guess he was just astute...:-)

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
"Burnham Treezdown" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 10 Feb 2007 21:17:44 GMT, robert casey
wrote:

Looks like her astronaut career is history...


And how did you arrive at that conclusion??

Looks like her astronaut career is history...
Well, who would want to have her on their crew, given that she has obviously
flipped over this.

Whatever the intention, and of course only she can know that, it seems to
me she has well and truly shot herself in the foot.

Sadly, this can happen to people, and its why we have justice systems in
place. She is probably not that dangerous of course, only dangerous to
whoever she has a grudge against at the time.

What of her family, was she estranged or does her husband not figure in
this?

I mean, every day people have several girlfriends, and if that is all it
takes to flip, well. Makes you wonder if there was more going on here in her
life than just this.

Brian

--
Brian Gaff -
Note:- In order to reduce spam, any email without 'Brian Gaff'
in the display name may be lost.
"robert casey" wrote in message
hlink.net...

"robert casey" wrote in message
hlink.net...
Looks like her astronaut career is history...

Hers and every other astronaut who's name is attached to this scandal.

Jeff
--
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a
little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor
safety"
- B. Franklin, Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919)